WAAGH! Drillteef

Some folks have been discussing their hobby areas and bitz boxes.  I decided to share my current disaster area and then became ashamed and found the energy to remedy my mess.  Things had actually gotten much worse than ever before and it took hours to clean things up and get everything back in its place. I'm also going to try and turn over a new leaf and get some commission work done this week... I swear it!!!! Be sure to CLICK images to zoom in on them. At any rate, here is my Situation before the clean-up.  I know.  Your gorge must rise at its very sight! Fast forward a good 48 or so hours... My constant hobby companion, Fritz. Under the desk I have a little place to put my feet up as well as my hobby toolbox and every National Geographic magazine since 1987. The upper level.  I've been meaning to put that poster up for months. The lower two shelves.  From right to left, top to bottom.  Rocks, sand, flock, bases, hobb...

It's only a few hours until our club's first tournament and I'm pretty excited. Unfortunately, unless we get a lot of walk-ins, we'll only need a maximum of eight tables. However, I think we're going to have a really good time just the same.  There's nothing wrong with everybody getting together, throwing some dice, and pushing models around all day. With this tournament, I chose to use the Narrative Terrain Setup option for our games.  Players will, however, have to remove one piece of terrain which is completely on their half of the board to place a fortification (and three pieces for the Fortress of Redemption).  Also, players will be allowed to move one piece of terrain which is completely on their half of the table to another legal location.  I am hoping that these rules will give us the best of both worlds: speedy setup, nice narrative tables, and some tactical flexibility. Each table has been set up with all of the missions and deployments in mind, in...

I wanted to do a little, quick, tutorial on how to prepare your images for sharing with others on Message Boards and for hobby challenges in particular.  This article will focus less on actually photographing the models or uploading and storing the images as I'm trying to keep this article focused and a little more audience agnostic. These days, the images we take are enormous.  For the purposes of actual miniature gallery sites, this is fine because they usually have a server-side mechanism for re-sizing the images for user consumption and downloading.  However, when posting images on a forum, you want to make your images a reasonable size because your audience could be on a mobile device or have a bad internet connection.  What size is most appropriate is debatable.  I try to keep my group pictures down to an absolute maximum of 1000 pixels per side and my individual miniature shots to 800 pixels maximum per side. Tools There are two major tools whic...

I was over on the Frontline Gaming forums chatting about D-Weapons in 40k when I had a little bit of an amateur game design thought about how to streamline the rules for D-Weapons in 40k.  It's clear that the primary issue is the alpha strike component of the rules which really make even fluffy games of 40k a bit of a snooze fest with entire swaths of models meeting their maker far too early in the game. Having said that, though, there are a lot of fun units which are allowed in Escalation which could be great fun.  Many of the Baneblades are really cool and, of course, my green heart adores Stompas of all variety. I'd like to suggest the following rule for use in friendly games of 40k whether the games be fluffy or competitive. D-Weapons are extremely powerful weapons which are not only deadly to the enemy but are also dangerous to operate. The power sources and mechanisms involved are among the most arcane and complicated in all the galaxy. As such, these powerf...

  Last weekend I played in a tournament where we were trying out the Stronghold Assault rules which I was totally game for.  One of the teams, a Taudar list, brought two Void Shield Generators with three shields each.  They overlapped the shields so as to create a bubble of approximately 16" x 20" which they filled with models. This made it extremely difficult to pod in with any effectiveness.  I must say that it was a largely extremely frustrating game.  I can see why much of our community feels that, even they do embrace Stronghold Assault in some fashion, that Void Shield Generators should not be on the list of allowed Fortifications in competitive play. I've had a few days to think about it and I'm starting to think that perhaps a ban on Void Shield Generators should be enacted with caution and certainly with a great deal of thought. A lot of people, when they think about how broken something in the game is, they look at Space Marines. Many power arm...

Moto Mwitaji is considered by many to be the bravest of all the Star Eagles' Mganga to the point where some say his zeal borders on suicidal.  As such, he is primarily deployed with the Chapter's Third Company or Eighth Company.  Mwitaji has always had a deep connection with fire, seeing it as a living force of nature.  He is often seen to commune with it in times of great need. This worship sets him apart from not only the other Mganga, but all the Star Eagles. Many of the Astartes are wary of the Mganga's strange spiritual nature, however they do not deny his assistance when it comes in a blast of heat and a wave of flame. ~ * ~ It was 11:30 last night when we finished our D&D session.  I'd drank an entire pot of coffee throughout the evening and was not really in the mode for sleep.  I found myself almost unconsciously reaching for the last gray plastic model in my Space Marines collection.  I was up until 3:30 painting him and I'm largely pleas...

If you've ever believed "competitive" and "WAAC" are synonymous, or said "GW Hasn't made a competitive game, so why are you trying",  please do listen to episode 188 of the 11th Company from 3:34:05.  I know that this podcast isn't everyone's cuppa, but please give it a try.  I just thought Neil's points this week really reflected my own feelings on the subject in a way that I've never been able to articulate as well. The point is that bad rules -- whether they be rules which create a severely imbalanced environment (Tau), or rules which are just broken and don't work (Out of Range FAQ), or rules which are incomplete (Stronghold Assault) -- affect all of us , not just for "competitive players" or "powergamers".  And it's not the competitive gamers' fault.  The blame rests solely on the shoulders of game design laziness. Hold them responsible.

I had another game at the club last night testing the rules for our upcoming tournament .  I used more GW ruins this time and I think that did the trick for terrain density.  Also, we noticed I had two of the same mission in the packet, so I must be sure to fix that before the day of the event.  Indeed, there are a few things to clear up. Additionally (and not related to this battle report), I believe that we need to include the rules clarifications for existing Fortifications which came with Stronghold Assault. My Star Eagles force with two base Storm Talons, "Calgar", a squad of Melta Legion, a squad of 9 assault marines in a drop pod, and four Tactical Squads with drop pods and special/combi weapons (two melta, one plasma, and one grav). Phil brought his blob Imperial guard with a huge mixture of heavy weapons and special weapons.  The list included two Infantry blobs with some heavy weapon squads, a Primaris Psyker, and a command squad giving out o...